Live and Learn

"Failure is not an option." It is a line from Apollo 13. For the crew of Apollo 13 there was
a serious problem that had to be fixed — it was a life or death matter. Today we use
that line to stop us from doing anything that we think we cannot execute perfectly. It's a
saying that can paralyze us. On the other hand we learn so much from failure. Why do
we discourage it? As Thomas Alva Edison said: "Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot
of results. I know several thousand things that won't work."

Trial and error is a time-honored method of learning. In our dot com world we have so
many people telling us that we must hurry or we will be left behind. We are also told
that we must encourage a learning organization. How do you meld the two together?
Learners are not as yet experts. They make mistakes. Work will probably have to be
redone and that will mean delays. Can a company move forward quickly and still allow
for learning?

Today I was talking with someone who had had a business of her own. When the
economy took a downturn so did her business. Now in a new position she shared with
me that a newspaper reporter had written an article about her with the headline
"Woman turns failure into success." She smiled as she told me she did not think of
what had happened to her as a "failure". Instead she saw it as a series of challenges
that helped her to learn and grow.

What a wonderful example of working and learning without being too attached to the
outcome! I am a big believer in setting goals and/or writing business plans. As we
implement the plan or take action we need to be very aware of what is happening and
the messages we get back. If the result is not what was expected, then either we go
back and change what we are doing or we see if the new result takes us to places we
had not thought of before but are even more attractive. In either case it is learning and
growing — not failure.

A client of mine was trying to jump start a consulting business. When we brainstormed
all the ways to get new clients, the one that he placed as his highest priority was cold
calling potential clients. Each week he set a goal for himself to call a certain number of
people. After several weeks of angst and making only a few calls, he learned that he
was much more comfortable and successful calling people he had met in his
networking than cold calling people he did not know. Instead of calling him a failure at
cold calling I would say he learned to use his own particular strengths to build a rapport
with potential clients.

Wayne Dyer in his book, Wisdom of the Ages, says, "You cannot fail, you can only
produce results." What is important is what you do with the results. Failure is a
judgment about the action. That judgment paralyzes people and keeps them from trying
again.

Do you view your own life in terms of success or failure? Try this exercise that Ellen
Goodman described in her June 11th article in the Boston Globe:

"Anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson gives adults an exercise I often

think of at this time of year. She asks us to compose two narratives of our
life history. Narrative One? 'Everything I have ever done has been
 heading me to where I am today.' Narrative Two? 'It's only after many
surprises and choices, interruptions and disappointments that I have
arrived somewhere I could never have anticipated.' The story of life can
read both ways."

The only way to move forward in your life is to take action. Some actions will result in
results that are expected and others will not. In the next month take action. Try
something that you have been putting off. Get someone to support you, your spouse, a
friend, a family member, or a coach. What are the results? Are you surprised? Will you
try again? What's next? What did you learn? I'd love to hear your answers.